


Comes Marching Home

by Boomchick



Series: Sefikura Week 2021 [7]
Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Found Family, Happy Ending, M/M, Sefikura Week 2021
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-02
Updated: 2021-02-02
Packaged: 2021-03-13 03:28:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,707
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29146695
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Boomchick/pseuds/Boomchick
Summary: Sefikura Week [Day 7: Reunion]Sephiroth stood with Avalanche to save the planet. To kill his mother. But he cannot face their celebration of the act.Cloud goes searching.
Relationships: Sephiroth/Cloud Strife
Series: Sefikura Week 2021 [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2126409
Comments: 14
Kudos: 195
Collections: Sefikura (Sephiroth/Cloud) Week - Yearly Event





	Comes Marching Home

**Author's Note:**

> A day late, but here is my final piece for Sefikura week! I hope you all enjoy, and that you check out the other pieces in the challenge collection, and on twitter and tumblr!

When it was over— when Jenova was dead— they celebrated, of course. The desperate joyful celebration of people still alive, while the lifestream spilled up into the air around them, and Meteor shattered into new moons and meteorites.

Sephiroth tried to mourn quietly. They did not note his absence. He was often quiet. Ofen withdrawn. They preferred that, he knew. Especially Tifa.

Especially Cloud.

Vincent looked to him for a moment. Looked like he would join him in silence, but then Cid’s arms were around him, and the wild pilot lifted him off the ground and swung him around and— Well, if there was any doubt that Vincent was soft on him, it vanished when the brooding gunner cracked a smile instead of cracking Cid’s ribcage.

“Take that!” Yuffie howled, and Red backed it up with a wild, animal sound of glee while Cait Sith paraded around the deck of the highwind, announcing their delight through their megaphone.

Cloud was all but hidden from view. Pressed against Barret’s chest. Tifa on one side, Aerith on the other. All holding each other. There may have been tears.

He’d promised to fight.To help defeat her. To save their planet. He’d taken selfishly what he could while they went. Taken Cloud’s time and attention the most, but taken all of their uncertain kindnesses. All their stories. All their company.

Now it was over.

Sephiroth let himself slip away.

* * *

“Vincent says he saw him,” Tifa was saying, arms crossed, watching Cloud with worry. “He was here on the ship. Just like you remembered.”

“At least I’m not losing it again, I guess.” Cloud whispered, staring down at the empty bunk where Sephiroth should have been curled. “I thought for a second…”

“He’s okay.” Aerith murmured, sliding a hand onto his back to join TIfa’s there, rubbing over the base of his neck gently with her thumb in comfort. “I’m sure he just needs some time.”

“Yeah,” Cloud swallowed back the sour taste of failure. Took a slow breath. “Yeah. I’m sure he just needs some time.”

“I guess,” Tifa said softly, letting her arms fall loose to her side, “we never really thought about what happens after.”

Cloud didn’t reply.

Sephiroth hadn’t packed his bags. He’d never had any bags to pack.

* * *

“She says I may burn it all down,” Sephiroth told him all those years ago, a strange look in his eyes. “But you would not like that, would you.”

“No,” Cloud told him. “I wouldn’t.”

“Very well,” Sephiroth sighed. “Just the reactor, then.”

He had walked away. Cloud had gone for Zack.

He still wondered, sometimes, what would have happened if he’d just let Sephiroth do as he liked.

* * *

“Nothing?” Cloud asked, feeling despair gnaw away inside his chest.

Reeve shook his head slowly. His eyes were empathetic and face smeared with oil from working on one of the excavators they had going to start the rebuilding effort. 

“He is his own man, Cloud.” He said softly. “And even before, he was not much for company. He may just have decided he was done.”

Cloud looked away. Down into the red-brown dirt that was the foundation for their new city, beyond the outskirts of the Midgar ruins. He scuffed his toe in the first, and watched the dust float by.

“He stayed before, though.” Cloud muttered.

Reeve gave him a small smile. Clapped a hand on his shoulder. Still weird, for it to be him and not Cait Sith... 

“I’m sure he’ll be back,” He said with a nod. “He fought with us so he could… How did he put it… Share the world with you, right? So I’m sure he’ll come back.”

Cloud swallowed. Nodded. “Right,” he muttered. “Right.”

* * *

“You’re back.” Sephiroth had said, voice soft, eyes strange, staring at Cloud where he stood in the middle of the street. People walked by him as if they couldn’t see him.

Cloud sucked in a breath. Tensed. Reached for his sword, but…

“Why?” Cloud asked, voice breaking.

“I lost you.” Sephiroth whispered, walking towards him.

“Cloud?” Tifa said from nearby, worry in her eyes.

Cloud’s fingers itched for his sword. He took a half-step back. Dragged in a breath.

“He died,” he whispered, “you died.”

“I missed you.” Sephiroth replied, and stroked a hand down Cloud’s cheek.

“Cloud!”

Tifa had walked right through his image. Had gripped Cloud’s shoulder. Barret had been right behind her, looking around wildly for the danger, even though that had been so far before he’d realized Barret gave a single shit about it.

“I saw Sephiroth.” Cloud whispered in answer to her unspoken question.

“He died, though.” Tifa whispered to him, gripping his arms. “You remember that. Right? The Shinra came and killed him. Killed everyone.”

“He just fell.” Cloud argued, shaking his head. He remembered it clearly. Remembered catching up to Sephiroth. Not knowing why they’d fought. (They hadn’t. He knew that now. Zack had fought him. Zack, who he hadn’t even remembered at the time. Zack, who had seen the movement behind the puppet and had tried to nip it in the bud.) He remembered watching Sephiroth cut the head from the monster’s body in the tank.

He’d called out to him. Tried to stop him. But Sephiroth had only smiled at him and—

And then the Shinra

The ‘clean up’ team, and—

“He was here.” Cloud repeated softly. “He was right here.”

“The hell, Tifa?” Barret had complained. “Thought you said you could vouch for him.”

“Let’s… Get you back to the bar.” Tifa had said slowly.

And the weight of their disapproval and concern had shaken Cloud out of it. He’d scowled. Shrugged off her touch. Pushed past Barret. “Forget it. Let’s just get this done.”

He’d still been able to feel Sephiroth’s touch on his cheek.

* * *

“You’re mopin’.” Barret said gruffly, still trying to get the new arm Cid and Reeve had whipped up for him to grip a shot glass without breaking it. The shards of his previous attempts had all been safely swept into the waste bin.

“Lot of that to go around.” Cloud muttered, poking at the huge ball of ice in his drink. It was almost the size of a materia. He wondered if he could fool Yuffie into stealing it. Then he sighed and gave up the thought. As if Yuffie was still there…

“Still broodin’ about your boyfriend, huh?” Barret muttered, the glass carefully balanced between his robotic thumb and forefinger as he squinted at it, willing gentility to an arm that had been nothing but a gun for years now.

“He’s not my boyfriend.”

“Uhhuh. Sure.”

“Just… I guess I knew we’d all go our separate ways. I just wasn’t expecting…”

“Weren’t expectin’ him to?” Barret suggested, not unkindly.

“I guess I just wasn’t expecting to miss everyone.” Cloud admitted with a rolling shrug. “Especially him.”

“Hm.” Barret nodded slowly. Sighed as he curled the rest of his fingers around the shot-glass. It was still whole and safe, after hours of practice. “It’s hard.”

“Sorry,” Cloud muttered, poking at the ball of ice again, wondering if Cid was having more luck looking for Vincent in his spare time than he was having looking for Sephiroth.

“Cloud!” Marlene yelled, pounding down the stairs of their new little home. “Here! I made you this!”

“For me?” Cloud asked, holding out his hand to accept the drawing.

Marlene had scrawled “MISSING” in large letters, with a deeply characteristic, if simple, illustration of a stick figure with huge cat eyes and a moderately crazed smile.

There was a shattering sound. Cloud jerked his head up to see Barret, both fists clenched, staring at the ceiling.

“Damn that’s cute,” Barret rumbled to himself, and pulled on his sunglasses before anyone could see him get verklempt.

* * *

When they went to Shinra to get Aerith back, when they wandered lost through the vast halls, there he had been.

He beckoned Cloud from the ends of hallways. From inside videos playing. From audio recordings playing on loop.

Cloud followed his voice, his presence, his guiding, straight to Aerith. And to Red XIII.

He almost heard Sephiroth sigh when they were captured.

He did hear him outside the door, hours later. He sprung out of bed. To the door. Pressed his hand to it.

“You’re here, aren’t you.” He whispered. “You’re really here.”

There was silence. There was the sound of the lock clicking.

“Stay.” Cloud had whispered.

“We want different things.” Sephiroth had replied, voice low and gentle. “I will help you when I can. And when it is over, we will be there together.”

When Cloud yanked the door open, there was no one there. Just blood painted on the wall, leading both to and from the body of the trooper crumpled in the corner.

“Cloud?” Aerith had murmured, rubbing her eyes.

“We have to go,” Cloud said in reply, glancing back to her with apology in his eyes. “It might… Be a little rough to see out here.”

Aerith had come to join him at the door. Had taken a shallow breath, staring at the body.

“Who—”

“The important thing is he’s on our side.” Cloud had replied, going to check the other doors.

For now, he had thought to himself with a sick, cold dread.

* * *

He didn’t hang the missing posters. He went to Aerith.

“You know it doesn’t work like that,” Aerith told him, shaking her head. “I can’t search people out. I can barely feel them when they’ve passed away.”

“He’s not normal, though.” Cloud said. “You could always tell when he was close.”

Aerith blinked down at the bare earth under her hands. Her flowers had died when the meteor crashed down onto midgar. ‘They helped,’ she had said, trying to sound hopeful. But he knew it had been a blow. Now she often snuck back into the ruins of Midgar to tend to her old garden.

“I’m sorry.” She said after a moment. “He isn’t close. I can tell you he still exists.”

Cloud clenched his jaw. Closed his eyes tightly. Crossed his arms. Tried not to hurt.

“He’ll come back,” she whispered. “It was always going to be hard on him, Cloud. He’ll come back.”

“Sure.” Cloud whispered, tight and wounded.

But he left without staying for the tea she offered him.

* * *

“What’s wrong?” Sephiroth asked him out of nowhere, standing in the ruins where the Temple of the Ancients had been.

Cloud gaped at him. Stared at him. Tried to catch his breath.

“What’s  _ wrong? _ ” He repeated, shocked beyond belief.

“You’re angry.” Sephiroth identified, eyes narrowed, head tilted, still holding the black materia with Cait Sith inside. “Why aren’t you glad? You’ve done me a great service today.”

“You tricked me!” Cloud snapped. “You  _ forced _ me!”

“No,” Sephiroth rejected at once. “No, I just showed you how.”

“You’re going to destroy the planet!” Cloud clenched his hand on his sword. Grit his teeth. Why couldn’t he draw it?

“Yes?” Sephiroth let his hands fall to his side. Stared at him out of bewildered eyes. “You’re… You don’t want that?”

Cloud almost laughed. Almost. He felt like someone was unscrewing his head. He felt like someone had poured bees into his mouth and they’d found their way to his heart and—

“No.” He said, as seriously as he could, trying desperately to hold himself together. “No, I don’t want that.”

“But,” Sephiroth frowned. Brows furrowed. “We can be together.”

“We could be together now!” Cloud offered desperately. “You don’t have to destroy anything for us to be together!”

“Oh.” Said Sephiroth softly. He hesitated. Looked down at the black materia, then awkwardly lifted it. Held it out to him like a child returning a toy.

Cloud stared at him. Slowly released the grip on his sword. Walked forward in uneasy steps, hearing voices of his past whisper caution.

He lifted the black materia out of Sephiroth’s palm carefully.

“Don’t be angry?” Sephiroth said, watching him with an almost vulnerable expression.

“I’m not angry.” Cloud replied, startled to find it was true. “I’m confused.”

“Me too.” Sephiroth admitted, sinking slowly to stand on the ground rather than hovering above it.

“Cloud!” Tifa was yelling from the top of the crevice. Cloud waved her and Aerith down, shook his head fiercely when Aerith lifted her staff in offer of magic.

“Stay,” Cloud said. “We can talk.”

“I’m not supposed to.” Sephiroth said in return.

“Please?” Cloud asked him. “You said you missed me.”

“I do.”

“Then stay.”

He stayed.

* * *

“Are you sure you want to find him?” Nanaki asked, his main full of fresh feathers and beads from his welcome back to Cosmo Canyon.

“What?” Cloud had replied, dumbfounded by the question.

“You always seemed uncertain,” Nanaki clarified. “When we traveled together.”

“I… Guess I always wondered,” Cloud said at last. “Who he’d really choose when it came down to it. Jenova or everything else.”

“And now you know.” Nanaki settled down at the fireside, watching him with too-wise eyes and crossing his forepaws.

“Yeah.” Cloud turned his gaze to the fire instead of looking at his friend head-on. “Now I know and he’s not even here for me to…”

“Hm.” Nanaki tilted his head. Heaved a sigh. “Well, keeping in mind that I am still only a teenager—” 

“You are way older than me.”

"— I have heard that when in crisis, people often return to places that hold special significance or importance. Do you know of places like that for him?”

“Too many.” Cloud replied after a moment, staring at the fire.

“Sounds like you should talk to Cid, then.” Nanaki chuckled. “If you’ll be needing transportation. Now if you wouldn’t mind, right behind my left ear…?”

Cloud tucked his chin. Smiled to himself, remembering a time Nanaki wouldn’t let himself be touched at all. Scratched the huge firecat behind his ear, and let himself relax just a little.

* * *

“I see what you are.” Aerith told him once, standing boldly before him before they left Gongaga.

Sephiroth had only stared, uncomprehending. Cloud had shifted closer to him. He didn’t know which of them he intended on protecting.

“I will stop you.” Aerith had continued in warning. “I won’t let you use Cloud or the Black Materia.”

“I am still considering.” Sephiroth told her, confusion in his eyes and voice. “Cloud explained to me that he wants this world to live.”

“Then what are you considering?” Tifa had asked uneasily, holding Barret back with one hand. She’d been trying to urge caution into all of them all night. Dangerous, she’d warned. Unstable. Cloud had heard her, which meant Sephiroth had too. But he hadn’t so much as blinked, so Cloud hadn’t mentioned it.

“The weight of the situation,” Sephiroth informed her with an air of allowance. Like he was being generous in answering. “Whether his desire outweighs mine.”

“What, and your desires are the only ones that count?” Barret had yelled, vicious, angry, pushed past the brink.

“Who else’s would?” Sephiroth inquired, with a cold air of curiosity.

“You son of a—”

“Barret!” Tifa said, holding out her hand. She had frozen there, hanging between them all for a moment, while Cloud’s hand itched for his sword and he suppressed it, not sure whose side he would swing on.

“Are you being cruel?” Tifa asked, eyes narrowed as she looked at Sephiroth. “Or are you really asking?”

Sephiroth had scoffed. Just a touch. Tilted his head. Had extended a hand to her, palm up, almost magnanimous.

“I am here, am I not? Make your case.”

“We shouldn’t have to.” Aerith objected, but it was a little softer.

“There are some things Sephiroth doesn’t know.” Cloud had said, unaware at the time who exactly he was quoting. “That doesn’t mean he’s a bad guy.”

“Hm.” Sephiroth had said to himself, eyes falling. “I miss him too.”

Cloud hadn’t understood it at the time.

Cloud had expected Aerith to step in. Maybe Tifa. Instead, Barret had spent the full day of travel talking about Marlene. He showed Sephiroth pictures of her. Told him about her art, and her laugh, and her cute-as-a-button smile, and her little hands, and her fighting spirit.

Sephiroth had listened, rapt, as Cloud had never seen someone do before when Barret really got on a roll about his daughter.

* * *

“Oh,  _ sure _ , ya finally make it out here ta Rocket Town and it’s ta try an’ borrow one of my ships  _ again _ .” Cid was complaining, loudly. “What are you standing there for? There’s tea in the pot on the counter, get some!”

“Right. Sorry.”

“Like hell you are. Sorry my ass. Not as sorry as you’ll be when ya crash  _ this _ one inta the ocean too!”

“Mmhmm.” Said Cloud absently, hesitating over the counter as he tried to figure out which of the multiple tools there was used for stirring sugar and cream into tea, and which were for mechanical maintenance. Possibly all both?

“Hells, you’re not even listenin’.”

“You have any luck finding Vincent?”

“Yup! He’s upstairs.”

“There’s an upstairs?”

“Well, he’s on the roof.”

“Oh. Do I want to know why?”

Cid finally pulled his head out of the panel he’d pried open to work on the airship’s interior. He swung his wrench back around to scratch the back of his head. “Y’know, I have no idea. Likes ta feel tall?”

Cloud snorted tea, and tried to cover it quickly.

“Ah, fine, you can borrow the Highwind.” Cid huffed. “The crew are missin’ flyin’ around anyhow. Be good for ‘em to taste fear again.”

“Hey.” Cloud muttered, recognizing the slight on his abilities for what it was.

“C’mere, Spikey.” Cid said, grabbing him around the shoulders and ruffling his hair. “Let an old man have his fun, huh?”

“You’re, like, thirty.” Cloud muttered.

But he had to admit he’d missed Cid’s dumb ‘old man’ routine. And the knowledge that Vincent was somewhere close by, listening.

* * *

Sephiroth stood by the gaping wound in the earth, looking down into it. Cloud…

He lifted his gaze to the broken ice. Where Cloud had shattered the prison containing his body. Had offered it back to him so gently. The ruin of who he had been.

Sephiroth did not know what he was anymore. He cradled the body to his chest until it was him. Was part of him. He felt better. He felt afraid. He swallowed back the fear. Closed his eyes against the desire.

This would be a perfect place. This is where it would hear him clearest. Where he could ascend to the stars. He could feel his body like it was new again. Like it was real again.

He just kept staring down after Cloud. Cloud, who had fractured. Who had been so gentle, passing Sephiroth’s limp, half-there body to him. Who had lost it all under Hojo’s words and—

“Sephiroth!” Aerith. Gripping his arm. “We have to go!”

_ She’s trying to stop you, _ something in him said.

She’s trying to save me, Sephiroth thought in return, watching her eyes darting to the crumbling ice and the vast creature inside it.

He let her.

“That damn thing’s headin’ straight for Midgar!” Barret had cried, panicked and afraid on the bow of the Highwind, staring after the monster. “Marlene!”

“Tell me once more where she is,” Sephiroth said softly to Aerith. “Sector five. A house with flowers.”

“Yes. Sephiroth, about Cloud, I’m so—”

“He will come back.” Sephiroth said, shaking his head. “I will find him. But first the child.”

“The— My Marlene?” Barret asked, whirling on him. “You’d do that?”

“I’m already gettin’ us there as fast as I can!” Cid called. “Should be able ta head it off!”

“I will find her, and encourage evacuation.” Sephiroth said with a slow nod to Barret.

“Why, if I may ask?” Nanaki inquired, tilting his head. “You have always been here, but you have never truly helped us before.”

Sephiroth stared at the deck. He saw Cloud’s eyes as he passed him his body. Saw the worry. The searching look in him before he fell. Like he was trying to find something in Sephiroth’s eyes. Saw Aerith grabbing his arm to pull him away from doom. Thought of the voice urging him to destroy it all.

“She is this planet’s inheritor, is she not?” Sephiroth looked to Barret for confirmation.

He nodded, slowly, stunned.

“Then she must live.” Sephiroth replied, and vanished before he could do what he really wanted.

Before he could take the black materia from him and go back.

* * *

“Wow, you think he’d come  _ here? _ ” Yuffie asked, and laughed in his face. “I’d kick him outta Wutai so fast you’d think it was a shooting star!”

“I don’t know, I’m running out of options!” Cloud sighed, crossing his arms. “I went to the Northern Crater, and I checked Shinra, and I looked around the forgotten city—”

“— and you’re avoiding your hometown like the plague.” Yuffie teased, walking over and poking him in the chest. “Trust me, I get it! It’s hard to face what really hurts. But you want him back, you should check there.”

“Why there?” Cloud asked, shaking his head. “Nanaki said to check places with special significance.”

“Well, if there’s one thing I know about Sephiroth,” Yuffie said, lifting a finger, “It’s that anything to do with you  _ always _ has special significance to him. Because you two are all gross and in love and stuff. Terrible choice, by the way.”

Cloud sighed heavily. Tucked his chin.

“Yeah, I know.” He muttered, and turned to go back to the ship.

“You’re not even going to stay for dinner?” Yuffie called behind him. “And don’t think I don’t see that bracer on your arm! Whatever you're carrying, that materia’s mine!”

Damn, he’d missed Yuffie too.

* * *

“He is having difficulty swallowing recently,” Sephiroth sighed, sitting by the chair that gave Cloud at least some small glimmer of freedom, though he was trapped in his own mind too much to enjoy it.

“You look exhausted.” Tifa replied. “You should get some rest. It’s my turn to watch him anyhow.”

“Will it be troublesome if I stay?” Sephiroth had asked, looking to her.

“No,” Tifa had replied after a moment. “Not at all.”

She had never liked him. Had never forgiven him for what became of Nibelheim. He understood. But she was kind now, while they shared watch over Cloud’s unchanging form. While they tried to coax him into eating and drinking. While they waited for him to wake. He was grateful to her. She understood his human needs in ways he could not. She told him things about ‘normally’ and ‘usually.’

She reminded him to eat when he forgot.

“I’m not used to having a body anymore.” Sephiroth had complained quietly, feeling the newly-whole part of himself with deep unease.

“Nothing for it but practice,” Tifa had replied, then had grimaced like she wasn’t sure if that was bad advice or not.

Sephiroth took it to heart either way.

When the world broke open he should have been able to save them both. He would have been able to, only—

Though he sprouted his wing, and caught Tifa and Cloud in his arms, the life stream reached for them. Caught his ankle. Dragged him down screaming.

And Cloud…

Poor Cloud…

He hadn’t realized. He hadn’t realized…

He knelt in the soil of his hometown, and watched the image of the man he loved scream and suffer in the sky while Tifa gently, kindly pieced him back together in ways that Sephiroth never could.

* * *

Nibelheim was empty. There was no one to pay Shinra’s actors anymore. No reactor for anyone to work at. Not even a sad yellow dog wandering around town square. Just an empty set made to mimic a life he’d known once.

Cloud walked through it without letting himself run past the shadows.

If Sephiroth was here, he knew where he’d be.

The mansion was a familiar nightmare. More familiar each time he came here. Distant memories rose up like dust. Not blinding or choking anymore, but irritating. Disorienting. Threatening another brief spell. Another sharp memory. Another thing he couldn’t stand. But only for a moment.

Like a sneeze instead of a full-blown asthma attack.

Of trauma.

“I need therapy.” Cloud muttered to himself, shoving open the secret door into the mansion’s basement.

Not as much as some people, he thought to himself, walking up to the library door.

He had to take a slow breath. He knew what he’d see. Two mako tanks. One would still have writing on the inside. Scraped in with a fingernail, desperately, when Cloud was still aware enough to read it.

Despite his best efforts, this had been the last palace he actually saw Zack. It still hurt to know that, even so many years later.

He opened the door.

The mako tanks were gone. So was Hojo’s desk. There was a crackling fire in a fireplace he’d never noticed on the wall before. Broken up pieces of desk sat beside books.

Sephiroth stood in the middle of the room, reading.

“Didn’t get enough the first time?” Cloud asked, not bothering to introduce his presence. He walked in slowly, looking at the space the mako tubes had been. He let out a breath when he saw that someone had cut away the fragment of glass that he’d Zack’s words. Not his last, probably. But the last Cloud remembered, which meant the last anyone knew.

“You shouldn’t be here.” Sephiroth answered, turning a page. “You don’t like it.”

“Why are you back here, Sephiroth?” Cloud asked. There was no anger in his voice. There was exhaustion, though. An exhaustion he hadn’t known he was feeling until he was speaking. 

Sephiroth hesitated. Then he lowered the book slowly. Dropped it to the floor with a light toss. Cloud glanced at the shelves. Realized how bare they were. Looked again to the fire.

“You know he never mentions her once.” Sephiroth said softly, scanning the books on the shelves. “In all his notes, in all his writings, he never even says her name.”

“What?” Cloud blinked. Frowned. “I thought this was how you  _ found out _ about Jenova. You just pieced it together?”

Sephiroth shook his head. Selected another book. Started paging through it.

“Not Jenova.” He said softly. “Lucrecia. Vincent told me about her. Everything he could remember.”

“He did?” Cloud furrowed his brows. “When?”

“When he found me here,” Sephiroth answered with a half-shrug. “Roughly three months ago now, I think.”

Cloud made a mental note to shake Vincent senseless. Maybe just shy of releasing Chaos. Galian Beast would be okay.

But of course, Vincent would just say ‘you didn’t ask,’ which was  _ technically _ true, but still annoying. Damn Turks.

“I don’t suppose he mentioned I was looking for you.” Cloud said.

Sephiroth hesitated. Let out a slow breath. His eyes slid to the ruined tanks.

“Do you remember the last time we were in this room?”

“You threw a materia at my head and flew away.” Cloud said flatly.

“Mm.” Sephiroth agreed softly. “I was so… So certain then. So sure I was right. That I knew best. That I’d figured it all out.”

He looked slowly to Cloud. There was something strange in his eyes. Cloud realized with a start that he’d never seen him look guilty before.

“You nearly ended up like her.” He said softly, lifting the book. “Written out, because I was sure I had the answers.”

Cloud swallowed. Walked forward.

“Harsh comparison to make,” he said softly to Sephiroth. “You’re nothing like Hojo was.”

“Aren’t I?” Sephiroth asked. “Ruthless, ruinous, cruel…”

“You stopped.” Cloud said softly, lifting his hands, framing Sephiroth’s face. “You stopped.”

Sephiroth stared down at him. Let the book fall limp from his fingers. Let his eyes fall closed.

“You look tired.” Cloud whispered. “Come home. I miss you. We all do.”

“I doubt that.” Sephiroth whispered.

“Look,” Cloud murmured, and pulled his secret weapon out of his back pocket. Pressed it into Sephiroth’s hands. Watched him unfold it.

“MISSING” Marlene’s first poster said. Her second and third tries were enclosed. She’d made lots of them. Barret said even without Cloud she’d started hanging them up around town.

“MISSING: MY FRIEND, SEPHIROTH, HE IS SHY” read the second.

“MISSING, CLOUD’S N.M.E., SEPHIROTH, DOES NOT BITE” said the third.

“These are—” Sephiroth said.

“The inheritor of the planet is worried about you.” Cloud teased gently. “You can always come back and burn more books later, if you want. But you’ve been down here too long. You should see the sun. See the work we’re doing in Edge. See the crew.”

“They’re gone, though.” Sephiroth murmured. “It’s over.”

“They’re all still here,” Cloud argued, shaking his head. “Even if we have to fly or drive to see each other.”

Sephiroth was still hesitating. Cloud put a hand on his chest. Over where his heartbeat should have been. He rarely had one. He didn’t at the moment.

“We might have split up for a while, but none of us will ever be alone again.” Cloud stepped forward. Slid his arms around Sephiroth. Held him close. “That’s part of the deal when you make friends.”

Sephiroth took a slow breath. Tilted his head down until it was resting in Cloud’s hair. His hands slipped around to rest on his back. Almost too tight, but not quite.

“I miss her.” Sephiroth whispered. “Isn’t that stupid? Isn’t that terrible? She tried to kill you and I miss her.”

No question who he was talking about that time. Cloud squeezed him tightly.

“I don’t think you’re terrible. Or stupid. I think you’re tired, and lonely, and that you’ve let your human body die in there again.”

“Just a little.”

“Hmm. Come have dinner on the Highwind and revive him, alright? You’ll feel better.”

“Normal people don’t have to revive themselves, you know.” Sephiroth told him, face serious and tired. “Normal people only have one body, and when it dies they die.”

“Yeah. I know.”

“You could have anyone you wanted, Cloud.”

“I can? Great. Guess that means you’ve decided to come home, huh.”

And when he turned around to walk away, Sephiroth followed.

* * *

_ Cloud: Found Seph, bringing him home, he’s bummed out. _

_ Tifa: What kind of bummed out? _

_ Cloud: Feels bad for missing Jenova. Existential crisis about taking after Hojo. Let himself die again. Sleeping it off now. _

_ Aerith: Did he eat? _

_ Cloud: Like, everything on the Highwind. Sorry Cid. _

_ Cid: The hell are you apologizing for? Food’s for eating! _

_ Barret: u 2 coming str8 home? _

_ Yuffie: OMG Barret why???? _

_ Barret: 1 hnd damnit _

_ Reeve: And yet he took the time to spell ‘damnit.’ _

_ Nanaki: tn;jkdt _

_ Aerith: You got this, Nanaki, take your time! _

_ Nanaki: t  
_ _ Nanaki:e  
_ _ Nanaki:a  
_ _ Nanaki:m  
_ _ Nanaki:m  
_ _ Nanaki:e  
_ _ Nanaki:e _

_ Aerith: “Meeting?” _

_ Nanaki: y _

_ Cid: Vincent says to tell y'all he doesn’t have a phone. _

_ Yuffie: So get him a phone? _

_ Cid: Good luck! _

_ Tifa: How about it? Everyone want to come down to 7th Heaven? _

The group chat exploded.

* * *

When it was over— when he was home— they celebrated. Welcomed him back with open arms, and gave him food, and drink, and scolded him for slipping away. For not taking care of himself. For making Cloud worry.

Cait Sith had gone around town and collected all of Marlene’s missing signs and turned them into garlands for the celebration. Marlene herself was behind the bar, shaking drinks.

When he’d come home, she had held onto him so tightly, and asked if he was okay, and if he was lost, and where he had gone, and if Cloud was happy now.

Sephiroth had picked her up, carefully, so that she could hold on more easily. She had pet his hair as if she were the one soothing him.

“You’re safe now,” she murmured. “You’re home safe now.”

He saw Barret crush a glass in his metallic hand as he watched, eyes turning upwards away from the sheer sweetness of his beloved child.

Sephiroth had swayed with her, slowly, like Elmyra had shown him when he helped take her to Kalm. Maybe he should have been embarrassed. He wasn’t, though.

“Come sit,” Tifa had said, a steel edge in her voice. “We’re going to talk about what kind of phone to get you for the next time you run off.”

“Vincent too!” Yuffie’s voice had crowed from upstairs.

“You’re supposed to be a surprise.” Cloud had reminded her casually, with a chuckle, dropping down to sit at Sephiroth’s side.

“I can hear them.” Sephiroth admitted, still holding Marlene as he sat. “Everyone didn’t have to come all this way.”

“Of course they didn’t  _ have _ to.” Tifa said, waving a hand at him as the rest of Avalanche all but poured down the stairs. “That’s what makes it special.”

They played darts. Vincent beat all of them, to no one’s surprise and everyone’s annoyance. Barret arm-wrestled with Cid with both arms, and then the mechanic had pulled a screwdriver out from nowhere and gone straight to tinkering on Barret’s mechanical arm. Nanaki was hard at work trying to play pinball, with Yuffie egging him on. Aerith hugged him tightly when she arrived, and threaded a flower into his hair, and announced that she had brought pie.

It was almost like…

Sephiroth swallowed. Stood in the middle of the room. All the people around him. All their joy, all their celebration. For him.

Cloud stepped up beside him. Threaded their fingers together.

“Cloud.” Sephiroth whispered.

“Mmhmm.” Cloud replied, leaning against him.

“I made the right choice.” Sephiroth breathed, feeling untethered and terrifyingly free at the thought.

“Yeah,” Cloud replied, reaching up his free hand and drawing Sephiroth down for a kiss. “You did.”

The kiss was ice and fire. It was uncertainty, and fragility, and beauty. As timeless as if just a heartbeat had passed between Nibelheim and then. As new and uncertain as if they’d never met before. It was Cloud’s iron body and soft lips. It was Sephiroth’s cold skin and hot breath. It was the two of them, unique and impossible and like no one else. Not even each other.

“Stay,” Cloud whispered when he broke the kiss.

“Yes.” Sephiroth promised.

He stayed.


End file.
